The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the research library of Linnæus University is used by students as a meeting place. Building upon Putnam's theory of bonding and bridging social capital and Audunson's conception of high and low intensive meeting places, it aims to explore the research library's potential for creating social capital and thus strengthening both learning and democracy in a university context. Borrowing part of the survey design from a study conducted as part of the Norwegian PLACE project, this study collects responses from 134 students as to their use of the library as a meeting place. The results show that the Linnæus University library is used for a variety of meetings of both high and low intensity, why it should provide a good setting for the creation of social capital. There seems to be a connection between how often one visits the library, as well as to which department one belongs, and how one uses the library as a meeting place.

Background: The regulation of banks is increasing in order to stabilize the financial market. Despite this increase in regulation, financial crises still continue to occur. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision is gradually increasing the capital requirements for banks, yet the increase in capital requirements doesn?t seem to solve the problem. This raises the question: how does capital regulation affect banks? Purpose: The purpose of this study is, primarily to illustrate the effects that capital regulation has on risk and efficiency on banks within the European Union, but secondary also study the relationship between risk, efficiency and capital regulation.Method: To achieve the purpose of this study, a deductive approach has been used, where the problem is assumed to be due to an agency problem.

Question:"Does the market possess perfect information as the efficient market hypothesis says?""Is there any significant relationship between the abnormal stock return on the ex ? day and the dividend?" Purpose: The purpose of this study is to enlighten and find understanding about stock return versus dividend on the ex ? day and try to figure out if abnormal returns occur on the portfolio during dividends.Methodology:The study was based in a quantitative nature and was derived with an event study and a hypothesis testing. The authors investigated the thirty most traded shares on the Stockholm stock exchange during a period of five years (2005 ? 2009). They were analyzed during a total of nine days; the estimation window was set to sixty days.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of joint venture announcements on stock prices behavior and simultaneously to test the German stock market (Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse) for efficiency. We tried not only to analyze the general impacts of a JV-announcement but also to look for differences in the market response to announcements of different types of joint ventures, namely: domestic, international, horizontal and vertical. Our expectations of efficient market were confirmed during our paper, which employed the technique of the standard event study. The calculation of abnormal returns which are the signals for market efficiency or inefficiency respectively were based on the market model, establishing linear relationship between the return on the market and the return on an individual security. The parameters of the model were obtained through regression analysis..

Denna uppsats utgörs av en jämförande studie vars mål var att utröna huruvida åtta stycken utvalda investmentbolag på Stockholmsbörsen hade varit ett konkurrenskraftigt alternativ som sparform eller inte med avseende på risk och avkastning. Detta jämfört med SIX Return Index och den riskfria räntan under en tidsperiod på tio år, 2001-01-01 till 2010-12-31.Syftet med undersökningen var att den i slutändan skulle mynna ut i generella slutsatser kring investmentbolag som sparform utifrån de data som hämtats in från de berörda investmentbolagens hemsidor.Författarna kunde efter avslutad undersökning dra slutsatsen att investmentbolagen historiskt sett hade klarat sig mycket bra och kunnat uppvisa resultat som varken marknaden eller den riskfria räntan var i närheten av. Även om vissa av investmentbolagen hade presterat sämre än jämförelsemåtten så var dock den samlade bilden att de som grupp hade varit ett mycket fördelaktigt investeringsalternativ. Detta med en genomsnittlig totalavkastning som överträffade index med drygt åtta procent.  .

The DuPont formula is one of the most well known and basic tools used for financial statement analysis and is highly useful for understanding firms strategies and operating environment. Previous studies on American listed companies have also shown that analysis of the changes in the DuPont components is useful in forecasting contexts. In this thesis we test whether disaggregating the change in return on net operating assets provides incremental information about future performance for Swedish listed and not listed companies. We find that the change in asset turnover is a leading indicator of increased profitability for both listed and private companies, regardless of size. We also find evidence that the usefulness of the disaggregation for understanding future performance is greater in capital intense industries and lesser in service industries..

Capital structure is without doubt one of the most frequently studied and controversial areas of modern financial theory, and will certainly continue to receive considerable attention from researchers worldwide. There is still no universal explanation of how an optimal capital structure would be designed for maximum appreciation, despite the development of several theories focusing on the subject. Equity and debt are the two main financing options that in combination explain the business's capital structure. The results of several research studies conducted in the subject has many times pointed out that there are specific factors that are directly related to the company's capital structure, and that there are clear sectoral differences in corporate debt. A study of the capital structure is considered important and interesting to implement due to the reasons above and the purpose of this study is to analyze and try to explain the similarities and differences between different industries in terms of how growth, profitability and size affect the debt level.

Background: There has been an increase in savings and investment in recent years along with an increased interest in responsible investments. Ethical mutual funds has developed and gained increasingly popularity.Aim: The aim of the study is to examine if ethical mutual funds are an equivalent alternative to traditional mutual funds in terms of return, risk and risk-adjusted return on the Swedish stock market.Theory: Beta, Jensen's Alpha, Sharpe ratio, Treynor ratio, and Modern Portfolio Theory.Method: Quantitative survey method, a statistical study.Conclusion:The study concludes that there is no significant difference between ethical and conventional mutual funds in terms of return, risk and risk-adjusted return. The small differences that exist between the two fund groups are in favor of the ethical fund group, indicating that funds is a comparable investment option compared to traditional mutual funds..

Our purpose with this study was to look at the connection between social capital and integration. Particularly if meetings between people from different cultures can increase social capital and in that way affect integration. We start by identifying the social integration perspective we are going to use through out the study and then we introduce social capital theory as a way of narrowing down the field even more. The study was done through six semi structured interviews. We interviewed three women that was established in the Swedish society and three women that had immigration background.

Background: What is a share and what determines the value of a company? This is a constant issue that many in the financial world are facing. Many argue that there has been some decoupling between stock valuation and how the company in question is developing operationally after the financial crisis that the world faced during 2008-2009.Problem: It is important to distinguish between the company and the share. A company that is good and well maintained may not be worth buying only because of it. The share is judged by other elements also.

The main objective of this paper has been to construct a way to measure the level of social capital in a society. Based on a theory which describes the ideal society have I herein tried to find out to what extent the Swedish and Danish communities correspond to this model. The theoretical foundation consist of several different levels of analysis, and I have indeed found there to be consideral differences between the two nations on these different levels. The paper however conclude that these differences even out to add up to a Social Capital Index that is remarkably similar. A result which is to be interpreted as one nation being about as close to the ideal situation from a social capital point-of-view as the other..

The purpose of this thesis is to study and determine how working in cross functional teams can generate value in an effort to facilitate innovation. An inductive scientific perspective is chosen as the research approach. A single case is investigated with the theoretical framework based on Resource Based View, Intellectual Capital, Innovation theory and theories concerning Cross Functional Teams. The empirical material has been collected through primary data; surveys, interviews and secondary data; literature, websites and further complementary data. The practice of using Cross Functional Teams will enhance organizational learning, knowledge transfer, increase communication and innovation, which in turn will increase the speed and performance of the new product development process.

För att skapa fler jobbtillfällen och driva på BNP-tillväxten i Sverige krävs det att små och medelstora företag får möjligheten att utvecklas och växa. För att klara det krävs det mer kapital från venture capital-marknaden, som är den viktigaste källan av finansiering för ett nystartat företag. Det har dock varit tuffa år för venture capital-bolagen sedan finanskrisen slog till. Den problemformulering som legat till grund för studien var följande:Hur har finanskrisen och den pågående eurokrisen påverkat venture capital-bolagens investeringsprocess?Studien syftade till att undersöka hur finanskrisen och den pågående skuldkrisen i Europa påverkat de svenska venture capital-bolagen och dess marknad.

Marketing research has acknowledged the concept of authenticity. It is argued that consumers in modern society increasingly search for something real, in contrast to what they perceive as mediated and distorted. Producers of regional food brands has acknowledged this trend, and started to market their products as being authentic. Given the potential practical and theoretical contributions in studying the concept of authenticity in this context, this study aims to explore how consumers perceive these claims of authenticity. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to extend knowledge on how consumers come to perceive a regional food brand as authentic.

Currently there is a tendency in the EU to adjust the minimum-capital requirement. In France and Germany the requirement for private limited liabilities has been totally abolished, whilst other countries have chosen to reduce their requirement. The Swedish law concerning the minimum-capital requirement is from 1st of April 2010 being lowered to 50 000 SEK. In common law jurisdictions such as United Kingdom and USA a minimum-capital requirement does not exist. The european main argument to keep such a requirement is that it accomplishes a creditor protection.